CIS NEWSLETTER 

No. 63 - March 2009

AMERIMNIA

(Amerimneô), what an outlandish word ! This Greek verb means “to be free from anxiety”, “to be free from care”. The derived noun amerimnia (freedom from anxiety and care) has given the adjective amerimnos which means that one is “care-free”. But it can also have a negative meaning which is to be careless, thoughtless. And yet, this word was the slogan that pushed certain Third century Christians (and later) to go out into the deserts and other uninhabitable places far away from any kind of civilization. This slogan embedded their life’s ideal and, having thrown far away from them all their cares and ambitions, they decided to follow the Martyrs’ footsteps by giving up their life to the Lord, free from all kind of bodily ties and possessions. This freedom became for them a renunciation just as it was the case with the martyrs, their forefathers, who had renounced their bodily lives for God. The persecution era being over, what was not bodily possible any more became possible spiritually and intellectually.

 
One of the Desert Fathers, an Egyptian called Sisoes, said, “Become a negligible quantity, throw your will behind you and be free of (amerimnos) worldly worries and you will be at rest.” Here is another saying of the Desert Fathers: “Abba (=Father) Poemen said that Abba John Colobos prayed God that He might remove from him his passions. And he became, in this regard, freed of all his worries.”
 

Lets us now turn to the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. In the Second Week we read in the meditation on the two Standards in N°146 the following: “The third point is to consider the address which Christ our Lord makes to all his servants and friends whom he sends on this enterprise, recommending to them to seek to help all, first by attracting them to the highest spiritual poverty, and should it please the Divine Majesty, and should He deign to choose them for it, even to actual poverty. Secondly they should lead them to a desire for insults and contempt; for from these springs humility. Hence, there will be three steps: the first, poverty as opposed to riches; the second, insults as opposed to honour of this world; the third, humility as opposed to pride. From these three steps, let them lead persons to all other virtues.”
At the end of the Second Week, Ignatius presents the three Degrees of Humility, and, regarding the third degree of absolute humility (N° 167), he says, “If we suppose the first and second kind attained, then whenever the praise and glory of the Divine Majesty would be equally served, in order to imitate and be in reality more like Christ our Lord, I desire and choose poverty with Christ poor, rather than riches; insults with Christ loaded with them, rather than honours; I desire to be accounted as worthless and a fool for Christ, rather than to be esteemed as wise and prudent in this world. So was Christ treated before me.”

In the Fourth Week we find the famous Contemplation to attain Love. The first point ends with the equally famous prayer (N° 234): “Take, Lord and receive all my liberty, my memory, understanding and my entire will. All that I have or possess you have given it to me; I give it all back to you. Dispose of it according to your will. Give me your love and your grace, for this will be sufficient for me”
 

Re-reading these three extracts from the Spiritual Exercises one cannot but notice the affinity between what the Desert Fathers say and what Ignatius says. What is common is what one could call the theme present in theses texts. In both of these sets of quotations one finds a complete absence of worldly worries and cares, in brief, the amerimnia. What was of the utmost importance to the martyrs was imitating the Lord’s total lack of anxiety regarding the survival of His body and life. This fact made them face the death penalty by confessing their Christian faith disregarding the consequences that awaited them. Imitating the martyrs and therefore the Lord, the Desert Fathers abandoned everything and went into the uninhabited deserts and faced multiple dangers in order to accomplish God’s Will without any regard for anything else.
In the Exercises, Ignatius encourages the person doing the retreat to follow and to actually do God’s Will notwithstanding the difficulties he/she might face, even though he/she may not be asked to leave the society of humans behind as well as all his/her ties with the life that was led up to the moment of his/her “election”. Now, what is behind this stance? It is clear that it is simply and only the desire to accomplish God’s Will above all else; whatever the cost.
Now, a second question is to be asked. Where does all this lead us? and, Is it really important that, today in the Twenty First century, a person who is making the Spiritual Exercises has in mind those that might be called his/her forbearers? A first answer can be: “You are not alone on this road. Others have treaded this path before me.” But there is another question, a second one which is even more important for us today. Where does the fact of striving to be free from anxiety and care, place the person in the Church’s history?
 

The answer to this question is really very simple. It places him/her in the two thousand year old tradition of those who follow Christ, our Lord; of those who have and are accomplishing God’s Will. The Disciples and Apostles followed Christ and threaded His path unto death after His Ascension; the Martyrs, their disciples in the primitive Church, did likewise; the Desert Fathers, after them, did likewise; monks, nuns and other Christians, following their footsteps, did likewise; Ignatius did likewise and today, we who try to follow the Ignatian path towards God do likewise. By so doing, we are sure that we are in the Lord’s Church and its Tradition: the spiritual descendants of our forefathers, the Church’s first members. Let us not forget the love Ignatius had for the Church which his “Rules for thinking with the Church” bear witness to. Amerimnia not only makes us authentic members of the Church Militant but also ties us to those who are in the Church Glorious. It will be difficult for us to do God’s Will and follow His Son on earth without that freedom from earthly cares which renders our mind and soul free to listen to what God wants of us, today.
 

Fr. Joseph Buhagiar Bianco S.J.
 

Let us pray by meditating on what St. Simon the New Theologian (born in 949) said to his disciples:
Just as one puts out the flame of a burning furnace by throwing sand on it, likewise do, this life’s worries and an attachment to something lowly, be it small, destroy the ardour lit in one’s heart at the beginning of one’s spiritual life.
 

Questions for reflection:

1. Am I really care-free when dealing with illegitimate worries in my daily life?

2. Am I really care-free when dealing with illegitimate worries in my relations with others?

Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux, Vols 1 and 2.
This is a translation of “General Correspondence”,
Vol 1 (1877-1890)
Vol 2 (1890-1897).
Translated by John Clarke, OCD. Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1982.
ISBN 0-9600876-9-9 (Vol 1)
ISBN 0-935216-10-3 (Vol 2)
 

“This is a critical edition of all the letters written by St. Therese according to the autographs, and for the letters that are lost, according to copies; these are accompanied by all the letters from her correspondents and by letters shedding light upon her life and thought.”

Therese wrote her letters in her cell, seated on a little bench, a writing desk (portable) on her knees, with an oil lamp for light in the evenings.

Having read “Story of a Soul”, and understanding in my heart why the book is still a best seller a hundred years after its publication, I was all interested in reading the letters of St. Therese. I was not disappointed in my expectations because these letters show further the greatness of her heart, and how she excited depths of sentiment in those who wrote to her.
I found of special interest the relationship between Therese and her sisters Marie and Pauline. They were thirteen and twelve years older than Therese and acted as loving mothers and mentors to her. Her very special friend however, was her sister Celine, four years older than Therese. Celine received more letters than any other from Therese.

“Story of a Soul” and “General Correspondence” present to us Therese, a very ‘simple’ person, all dedicated to Jesus.

Fr. Victor Degabriele SJ

O Christ Jesus,
when all is darkness
and we feel our weakness and helplessness,
give us the sense of Your presence,
Your love, and Your strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
in Your protecting love
and strengthening power,
so that nothing may frighten or worry us,
for, living close to You,
we shall see Your hand,
Your purpose, Your will through all things.
 

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

This seminar will be conducted in English

April
 

Il-‘Lectio Divina’ hi metodu qadim u dejjem ġdid ta’ qari spiritwali tal-Kotba Mqaddsa, ta’ talb bil-Bibbja. Il-‘Lectio Divina’ fiha erba’ stadji : 1. Il-‘Lectio’ (il-qari), 2. Il-‘Meditatio’, (il-meditazzjoni), 3. L-‘Oratio’, (it-talb), 4. Il-‘Contemplatio’, (il-kontemplazzjoni). Dan hu bħal sellum, magħmul minn erba’ skaluni, li bih nitilgħu mill-art lejn is-sema. Saqajh iserrħu fuq l-art, imma l-quċċata tiegħu tinfed is-sħab u tgħarrex is-sigrieti tas-sema. (Guigo c-Certosin).

Dan se jkun irtir fis-silenzju li fih nitgħallem nitlob bil-‘Lectio Divina’.